20 power generating plants seen on outage during summer months

At least 20 power
generating facilities will be on combination of unplanned outage and scheduled
maintenance shutdowns at the duration of summer months, according to a report
drawn from the contingency planning set by the Department of Energy (DOE) this
week.

It is thus feared that
with the simultaneous shutdown schedules of power plants, Luzon grid supply
could be strained again and that could lead to power interruptions if
conditions would be worsened by forced outages of more power generating
facilities. This too could trigger spikes in electricity rates.

Based on presentations
made by system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to
the DOE and other relevant stakeholders on Wednesday (March 22), the power
facilities on outage will include Calaca unit 1 with 210-megawatt capacity;
Pagbilao unit 1 at 382MW and Pagbilao unit 2 at 382MW; Masinloc Unit 2 at
315MW; Quezon Power at 456MW; GNPower unit 1 at 302MW; and GNPower Unit 2 at
302MW.

The downtime and
unplanned outages of specified power plants stretched from February until June
this year, according to data culled from the energy department.

NGCP has noted that the
peak demand forecast for the year would be at 9,870 megawatts – and this is
anticipated occurring around May.

It was similarly
specified that the shutdown of Calaca unit 2 on March 28 -March 30 this year
has been categorized an “unplanned outage;” while the downtime of its Unit 1
had been extended until April 11. The original downtime schedule had just
been from December 15, 2016 to February 27 this year.

According to the power
supply-demand outlook, the most critical period for the grid will be on the
week of May 13 to 19 when the peak demand is expected to happen.

At that time, gross
reserve level is anticipated to go down to 1,350 megawatts, entailing then that
any uneventful forced outages in big power generating units could pull down the
grid to ‘yellow alert’ or even ‘red alert’ conditions – hence, perceptibly
resulting in unwanted power interruptions or the widely known and dreaded
rolling brownouts.

For the month of March,
system load is anticipated to be hovering at 8,870 megawatts to 9,030 megawatts
and this will just continually climb throughout the scorching weather months of
April and May.